No money for Town Watch

OXFORD – The new president of the Oxford Town Watch Association would like the borough to help support the organization financially, but there is no money for them this year.

Susanna Vinciguerra came to the Jan. 21 Borough Council meeting to request $2,500 in funding for outreach programs and to help generate new membership. The crime prevention group does not get regular support from the borough, not even to cover the $300 they spend each year to maintain a website.

The response from council was not what Vinciguerra had hoped for. “Our budget is done for the year. That might be something we can put on for the following year,” finance committee chair Sherry Andrews told her.

In the meantime, the Town Watch members will have to continue to look at other ways they can raise money for the non-profit organization founded in 2007.

Traffic related issues were the main subject of the council meeting, with discussion of a possible offer to allow residents of the Oxford Hotel to park in the Borough lot on Fourth St., above Borough Hall. The deal the traffic committee is proposing would cost the hotel owners $100 a month, and would only be good for 90 days. In that time, the borough expects the hotel owners to find alternate parking for their residents.

When the hotel received a variance from the zoning hearing board in the 1990’s they were supposed to have six parking spaces for residents and be looking into additional parking. Now, there are just two spots for hotel residents and people are parking at the meters on Third Street. “Some of them think that as long as they feed quarters to the meter they can leave their car there as long as they want but it’s two hour parking,” Police Chief John Slauch said. “To the best of our ability we have been enforcing the two hour limit.”

Another issue the traffic committee will be taking up in February is the back up of traffic on side roads as people try to turn out onto Third St. in the face of heavy traffic. Since the opening of Oxford Commons shopping center outside town traffic down Third St. and its traffic lights, it has been harder to get out of Mt. Vernon Street, Park Street and other side streets in the area. If anything can be done to improve the situation is still a question at this point.

Council also voted to authorized advertising for bids for Phase 2 of streetscape improvements, even though council members balked at the part of the plan that will remove the vintage street light at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Pine Street. Originally an oil light that was later converted to electric the street light is the last remaining one of its kind in the borough, and is not working at this point. It stands in the middle of the wide intersection defining where the streets merge, but will be replaced by a lower, new divider.